I’m out of words. Halas. Finished. I’ve been busy following one of the laws of physics that dictates “An object at rest, stays at rest.”
Look for me to return around June 29th when I have new material to work with . . .
Month: June 2012
back on the ranch
Camille and I have been doing as little as possible. She watches Dora while I listen to my audiobook, she plays with her wooden beads while I knit, and every now and then we eat. Good times.
We also went to a birthday party
The little girl was turning 3 and had “big girl toys” like My Little Pony.
Pulling a chair up to the computer to watch “more Dora.”
And where is Caleb? Living it up. He’s off at another sleepover. He’s had 2 in the 3 nights that they’ve been gone and has another one scheduled for later this week. We went to see Madagascar 3 today (yes, I actually went to a movie) and he’s going to play at a friend’s house tomorrow. He’s never going to want to travel again after having this much fun staying home.
And these guys? I have no idea what they’re seeing or doing. I just get photos on my phone every now and then — like this one on the beach in Tel Aviv
They had a hard time finding a place to eat dinner in Galilee because it’s Shabbat (so almost everything is closed), but it looks like they aren’t going to starve.
Tomorrow I think they’re going to be exploring the Galilee area — maybe I’ll get another trip report and you’ll be saved from the mundane happenings here in Muscat.
On location
Calvin’s report of their first day (unedited, except to add extra paragraph breaks)
Israel June 15 2012
Yesterday when we got off the plane, it was strange to see everybody in T shirts whereas for us, the three Americans in our dress pants and collared shirts and I felt that I was really out of place.
When we finally got out of customs and to the car rental, we where instantly sent all the way across a giant bridge to a shuttle that took us to the car rental. After about forty-five minutes of ” oh dang it! We went to far” and “Calvin, give me the map!”, we finally made it to our hotel. There were a lot of bikes and mopeds that people were riding on.
We took the car to a car park but dad didn’t have any cash so we had to go find an ATM. After we tried five different ATMs, we finally found one that worked.
After we gave the money to the car park guy we went up to the City Center to get dads micro sim. We went up this street like we were supposed to but that is when it all stopped. dad didn’t bring the map so when I told dad, “the map told us to go this way” dad said, “no, it said a diagonal road and this is diagonal” little did dad know that the real road was right across the street so we went walking down this street for some time when dad saw a phone store and got his micro sim.
After we got dads micro sim, we ate burgers at The Burger Bar. For dinner, we went to City Center to get food (and yes we did go the right way).
Who knew he could be such a comedian? I wonder what Josh would say about Calvin’s interpretation of the day’s events . . .
so long, farewell
Carter summed it up best today: “It’s weird, cause you know how you’re supposed to be happy when school is out for summer? My class was sad.” Yep, it’s a special kind of place where kids ask their friend’s parents to sign yearbooks and wish the last day of school was a full day instead of a half day. (I haven’t written so many “Stay Sweet!” and “KIT”s since I left High School.)
Also unique? The middle school talent show. Not because the kids were extra talented or anything, but because they were perfectly normal, off-key, not perfect, cute and awkward, but at the end of each performance, from the roar of the crowd, you’d have thought they were rock stars.
A talent show at my middle school would have been like Showtime at the Apollo where a performer has less than 10 seconds to wow the crowd and anything less than perfection results in laughs and boos. Which is why you wouldn’t have found me anywhere near a stage. But Calvin is braver than I am . . .
I was standing at the back of the auditorium so you can’t see him, but if you turn up your computer speakers, you might be able to hear him playing guitar and singing. (It’s a Coldplay song).
I started these pants a long time ago — when Camille was an infant. As part of the move I’ve been sorting through everything: clothes, drawers, colored pencils, games, my yarn . . . I got tired of looking at this 3/4th finished project so I finished them up today. They are made of a cotton/linen blend yarn so they should be perfect for Bahrain’s year-round summer. I’m not actually a knitting machine, even though it seems like it lately. All I did today was 1/2 a leg, the ruffled cuffs and added the elastic waistband. I may start a new project this week since half the family will be gone and I can’t do much more before the packers get here. Or I’ll spend way too much time looking at patterns and feeling my yarn, but never actually be able to commit to a project . . . that’s usually what happens.
thoughts today
I might have been living in the Middle East too long when seeing two people kissing in the hotel pool makes me turn to Josh and say, “Ew. Get a room.” PDA is non-existent here. In fact, as part of our Bahraini info package it warns that we aren’t allowed to hold hands in public. I think that might be taking it too far, as we do see Omani couples holding hands, but I guess we’ll see when we arrive.
I also noticed when I put on a dress the other day that came to right above my knees, I felt practically naked. Totally cute dress, but I spent all day tugging at it, trying to make it longer. I guess that one will have to go back in the closet until we get back to America and I can show off my knees without feeling self conscious.
Another sign that I’m acclimating? I bought avocados and peaches today and didn’t care that the avos cost $2 each and the peaches were $3.50 per pound. I guess I cared enough that I’m writing about it, but it wasn’t painful enough for me to bypass them. I haven’t had peaches in over a year and these smelled almost peach-like and that’s as good as it’s going to get here.
We’re hanging out at school this afternoon getting a last coffee while we can. The kids are all cleaning out their lockers and I found Calvin’s sweatshirt in the lost and found.
Remember how I said Camille has been crabby? Yeah, still that.
Tonight we went off schedule and headed to the MEA for dinner on a Tuesday night. Friends that we have dinner with every week are flying out in the morning and we wanted to have one last dinner together.
The best part of the night? Our own personal cakewreck. Our friends have the same (great) sense of humor as us so they had the pastry chef at the MEA make us a cake that would make us laugh and taste great. Chocolate cake with chocolate filling and chocolate ganache . . . so good. And if you’ve never checked out cakewrecks and want a laugh, start here: Under Neat That or here: More cake mistakes
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photo credit: Jennifer Macfadyen
We are really going to miss them! |